Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-05-14
AMONG THE KANAKAS.
A Chica9oau on Kapiolani,s Land.
III QUEENS FoSDSEss FOR POI AND BLACK PIrH--
BAD xING-woNDxKFuL SWIMMER.

A ChicAHOan on Kapiolani's Land
III QUEENS roSpSEss FOR POI AND 4 BLACK PrrR-
BAD xISG-woNDxRFuL SWIMMER
From the Chicago Herald.
"a queer country Is this Hawaiian Kingdom"
said DR.. Raws0n, Of Madison street. 81 lived there
two years as government medical of6cer, and
know the people and their customs very We'll
Physically they are a magnificent race, and nearly
all the men OF athletic mold. Morally they are
degraded people. Mcentiousness runs Not among
all classes, and in the native tongue there Is no
word for virtue. Eighty per cent Of the population
is afflicted with faint which the children largely
inherit. This degeneration is rapidly destroying
the native race. 1t Is estimated that In forty
years more or Whereabouts the native islanders
will become practically extinct. They are an In
telligent people, and It seems great pity that
they must disappear from the earth. All Of the
natives wear European clothing, and botn men
closely follow the English and American
styles There are many schools In the ne, kng0o M
lapse Into state Of semi barbarism In 80 far as
their superstitions are concerned. They are
Kapiolani, who was here the other day is not free
from the dark traditions OF ner ancestors. In hef
native nut In the corner OF the palace grounds tne
queen eats three-fnger poi smokes black pipe,
and sleeps almost in the open air on pomona
mat. The tree fern is great friend of Kanakas.
FROM us 0Der Iley make the Iudto tDty Slccp ous
and the quilts which cover their bodies. These
quilts have five flaps. In cold weather all are
used, in warm weather only one, and so on the
natives are very hoSpitable, and II you stay al
night in one OF their houses, in the morning they
ron up the quilt and make you O present OF It,
dare say that while on her travels the queen
misses her puiu mat and quilt as much as any
thing unless IL be her black pipe, and a. like as
not she has that along with her. pulling at 1t on
the sly. Notwithstanding this she is good deal
better than her husband. Kalakaua is very bad
man, and shows no signs Of reforming.
'Tne Kanakas are not very fond OF jewelry, but
they take kindly TO American beer and whisky.
The most gorgeous thing they have In the way OF
ornament Is the golden yellow feather OF the little
90 bird II is serious crime TO kill one OF these
birds. Kalakaua has a royal robe. handed down
to him from Kamehamehas, which is literally COW
cred with these tiny but brilliant feathers. Each
finger, and there must be many thousands OF them
ON the royal garment. understand that kapio-
lani has in her trunk mantle covered with these
feathers, and with it she hopes to dazzle the eyes
of the Britishers at Queen VlctOrias jubilee.
There Is one thing about these natives which
will appear almost Incredible, and that is their
almost sh-ike familiarity with and agility in the
water. They are human muskrats. The women
are as much at home In the water as the men. /
can tell you OF my own knowledge OF a kanaka
woman who was out at sea with her husband in
small boat when storm overlook them. The boat
was capsized. a boom striking the man on the
head and fatally injurfng him. His wife was I'M
hurt. and she took him on her back and supported
him. In about four hours the man died, but his
wife continued to support the body, and was still
doing so when assistance reached her, twenty-Six
hours later. She had been in the water, support
ing her husband either dying or dead, for thirty
hours.
''The lower classes live chiefly on poi and raw
fish. They never think OF cooking fish. Probably
this peculiar taste is a relic OF the canni9aliSm
which was once practiced on the islands have
seen natives dive into the ocean, grasp devil fish
by one or more OF bis tentacies and pull him 10 the
surface. Then, while the nSh was running his
many feelers over the face and neck OF his captor,
the native would begin to MUNICH away at the ten.
tacle which happened to ind its way into his open
mouth.
mo; the Hawaiian kingdom Is not a great
country. There are ten or twelve islands In all,
with total area of about six thousand square
miles. The whole Kingdom is not as big as New
Jersey. think the population is now about sixty
thousand. OF whom only about twO-thirdS are ma
tives. The half castles are rapidly increasing in
numbers, and 80 per cent Of them tllegitimate.
Doubts have been expressed az to the legitimacy
OF The king himself. There are about fifteen hum
dred Americans in the kingOm and 5000 Chinese.
The Chinese are In the trades and professions and
prosper amazingly. There are Chinese lawyers,
doctors, merchants, and manufacturers, and many
Of them have very good social standing
'.The climate of the islands is the most heathful
and equable that could be Imagined During the
two years was there the lowest temperature was
81 in the shade, and the highest SO. A variation
OF Is degrees In day Is extremely Fare, and rs
degrees Is the average the year round at Honolulu
There is quite contrast between the climate OF
Honolulu and Chicago. Why the weather is so
equable there that nobody talks about it, The
those remarks about what the weather has been,
is or may be, which are so commonplace in this
country. Moreover, there is no word in the Kanaka
language for "weather." They take no account of
such thing. This language is one Of the softest
TO speak have ever heard and doubt II its equal
in this respect can be found. 1t has nearly twice
As many vowels In proportion to consOnants as the
Italian, and every word ends in a vowel In re-
duc1ng 1t to writing, Americans use only A, E. l. o,
L, II, X, L, NJ, n, z and W.
The Hawaians have very good form Of gov
eminent, and would be all right il they only had
good governors The constitution is much like
that OF the United States, and was drawn by an
American, Judge Lee. The king has cabinet q
privy council, military stan, and governor for
each OF the more important Islands. There is
house OF mobiles and a house OF representatives to
make laws The representatives are elected by
ballot, and voter must be able to read and write
pay his taxes, and have an income OF SIS q year
One-third OF the mobiles and representatives are
Americans. In fact, shrewd Americans have
pretty big swing in the Kingdom, and are almost
as influential in the palace they are important
In trade 4 good part OF the sugar plantations
are owned by san Francisco merchants and capi-
talists, and it is only question Of tine when
some moneyed nabOb will depoSe the bankrupt
ruler and Install himslf in the kanaka palace"